MINNIE Mouse Pen-stand

Well!!!! Hiiiiiiiiii………
I recently made a very cute Minnie-mouse pen-stand. Actually that day I had pepsi and cup-o-noodles in the night and was left with the empty cans. Looking at the two pepsi cans and the cup-o-noodles plastic bowl which was of a slightly bigger radius than the pepsi cans I was reminded of the three circles used in a mickey mouse cartoon- two for its ears and one for its face. It was then that an idea struck me to make a Minnie-mouse pen-stand out of it. So I cut the pepsi cans into half and painted them black. The cup-o-noodles cup was painted skin colour. Then I stuck them together with fevicol (the two pepsi cans side by side with a little distance between them) and made holes in the cans and put a satin ribbon through it and tied it like a bow. Then I took a thick sheet of paper, cut in the size of the cup-o-noodles circle and drew the eyes, nose and mouth for the Minnie mouse. Made holes in the cup and the sheet and tied them together so that the sheet covered the mouth of the cup. That is all. A simple and yet extremely cute pen-stand! I love it! Will upload its picture once I take a photo of it. Hmm… The sheet can easily be opened and the cup-o-noodles cup would be used to keep small things like eraser, sharpener, nail-cutter or stapler and the other two cans can be used for keeping the pens.

Pappu CAN dance!

Even when I was nothing else, I was always a dancer. Dancing was always something I cherished since countless time. But there were many cranky depressing times when I did not feel very great about knowing how to dance. I would notice other people dancing and conclude that every second person on earth can dance well. Hmm… I am a little wiser now. I have now realized that what if there are better dancers than me. I feel good not in knowing that I am the best dancer in the world but in ruminating that dancing is the best thing I know.
Some of the very early memories I have of dancing are:

I was in Pune, 42 Rastapeth, visiting my grandparents. I fail to remember any other details of my visit or even the house but I retain that one day I was dancing to my own singing in the hall, when tatha (grandfather) quietly came in and saw my solitary performance. He was quite impressed by it and had persuaded my mother to joining me into a dance class. I think it was how I was made to join the Bharthanatyam classes.
My first stage performance if I am not wrong: “Chane ke kheth mein”. Umakka had taught me the steps for the song and I had danced in my mother’s office programme tapping the same steps as Madhuri Dixit had in the film. I was quite happy after getting my first limelight. There were many dance performances from then on. Some bharthanatyam performances my dance teacher used to arrange and many others where I used to choreograph songs, teach them to my friends and synchronize with them.
Third memory is that of my first day in dance class. Appa had come to me one day when I was five and had asked me whether I would like to learn Bharathnatyam. Unaware of the long strange word I had asked him what it was. He told me it is an excellent dance form and I would definitely like it. Those days I was really fascinated by the colourful green masks people wore for mohiniaatam and kathakali. Excited I laid one condition, I would learn it only if I get to wear such masks for dancing. My father agreed and I registered myself for the dance class. I perfectly remember my first day there. I had thought of it as a summer camp thingy, so I had taken green marbles with me to entertain myself, just in case. I had seen boys playing with it and wanted to play too (still want to, though could never understand the game) and somehow had got hold of a handful of them but had not got any time afterwards to play with it. So I had thought of taking it along to the dance class and finally play with it there. I had hidden it in my dupatta which I was supposed to tie around my waist. I had loosely tied the duppatta around my waist, while careully keeping the marbles there. As I reached the class, the first thing my dance teacher did was untie my duppatta as it was very loose (the dupatta is supposed to be tied extremely tightly) and so went my marbles rolling everywhere on the ground. My teacher certainly had not expected it and eyed me suspiciously and being a shy girl at that time I simply blushed. The rest of the session was very boring for me. All through the hour we had to hit the ground hard first with the right leg and then with the left and with hands folded around the waist. This was clearly nowhere as interesting as I had imagined dancing thin-thak dhin-thak thai in green coloured masks. But several months later, I started enjoying it, when we actually started dancing rather than merely thumping our feet on the ground. Even then, I did not consider Bharathnatyam to be the greatest of things, but now, I know its importance and feel proud to identify myself with.

NAAM KA DAAM!

Names! What is not in a name? Shakespeare made his “name” by saying what is in a name! ahh… there is so much to it. We come to know a lot by just its name. Let us consider people’s names for instance. Here in India, you can know a person’s religion, status, background, the region he belongs to, caste and what not.
There are some legendary names like “Jai Pratap Singh” which in itself denote power! And Kumar’s, Kapoors and Khans are as it is very famous for their connection with the film industry.
While some names picture timid meek fellows like “Kishan Sansarovar” or “Nandan Tomar” or of a south Indian pimp like “ murlidharan muthuswami”, some names make us imagine tappori gundas like “raju misra” or “lakhan yadav”- Waah! Naam mein hi dam hai! Furthermore there are some names which sound of a person highly qualified like “Animesh Mukherjee” or “Deepak Acharya” or “Prajakta Deshmukh” and many sound as a musical tune like “Jignesh Mehra” or “Geetanjali Oberoi”. And not to forget the many Rajs and Rahuls who sound totally filmi in every sense.
Well. There is another category of interesting names- the surname of parsees. They truly represent the occupation and economical status of people. There are railwanis, mathurawalas, tyrewalas, daruwalas, botliwalas and the list goes on. Don’t they sound a little comical?
And yes. Now is the trend of having inimitable extraordinary names. Well the craze for it goes to such an extent that you will come across names like “Labadhi” or even “Vidhdyut” (electricity). There is, many times confusion created by unisex names like “Monu” or “Swapnil”. There are some people in my college who are often regarded as persons of opposite sex because of their names. Naming some of them, I would mention – Roshan, Shakti, Anadi and Yatharth.
Time for secret revelation. Well, I cant help but mention one very personal thing here. Umm… hehehe.. I have in mind already thought of some names for my children. (cheeks red!) well. I have come up with two names for now – Dhwani and Satvika. Dhwani means melody and satvika means pure character. I find both of them very appealing and lovable. Hmm… By the way, I came up with the name Satvika during our history class in the first semester. Our history teacher was once telling us about the schools of thought when he mentioned this name and told its meaning. I instantly made my mind to name my daughter “satvika”! And hey! I have the copyrights of these names so please don’t try copying any of the two names. Haan, you can otherwise copy the other mentioned names similar to Veer Singh Chourasia and all...
So! I end this post here. TATA!!!

my favourites!

Since childhood I was fascinated to be unique and different from others in all possible ways. And unknowingly my choices have been very different from others. Here are a few examples.
My favourite colour: guess! No, you would not be able to guess it. It is ORANGE. I seriously feel it is such an under-stated colour. It is so pleasant and charming, plus a colour for the energetic and happy crowd but it somehow remains in thick layers of dust whenever colours are being mentioned. Dunno why!
My favourite fruit: again, hardly anybody would be able to guess it right. It is pomegranate. Ahh.. it is so yummy. Well even that a history behind it. When I was a child, I had once peeled almost 3-4 pomegrantes together. And as I was peeling them (is peeling the right word?!?!?) my sister appreciated my efforts saying how attentively I was peeling them, with so much concentration. I had puffed up with pride and nothing ever tasted sweeter than the pomegrantes that day! And seriously I don’t understand the craze for mangoes.
My favourite vegetable: this is known to many (atleast all those who read my blog, that is my family) hmm.. it is spinach.. ahh… I love it. It tastes great. Maybe I am a female popeye( and equally powerful too) .
Hmm… that is all about having strange favourites. Now my favourite movie. Well, it would not be as unique as my other favourites. So don’t expect me to come up with idiotic movie names like naagin or aabra-ka-daabra.
Hmm.. sooo… my favourite movie is “saathiya”. It has always been my favourite movie with ideal kind of romance. I don’t know why of all the romantic movie I chose this one. Maybe it is because, it was the first movie I had seen after actually knowing what “love” is. Adolescence had just struck me that time and I had finally entered the dreamy gates of romance. Perhaps prior to that I used to see movies without actually taking in whatever was shown. Ha! Movies before were similar to my “monster poem” which I had posted earlier. And hence, seeing sathiya I was able to actually comprehend whatever was being shown and somehow relate myself to the word “love”. Which is why I truly adore the movie.
Chalo then, bye for now. Not much time in hand for me to write any further.

Phir bhi family hai hindustani!

Haven’t updated my blog since so long. Main reason is that whenever I start writing, I get extra conscious about whatever I would be writing about and quit writing. Last time I updated my blog, my sister had told me that I include unnecessary details making it boring for the readers. And since I get easily influenced, whenever I sit to write anything, I feel I might be making a big deal about simple things. And then, I feel inferior when I read good blogs. Makes me feel that I talk rubbish when people write such sensible things. That made me not write anything all this long.

Anyways, one single point that made me write again. I had this post saved as a rough draft for a long time, but because we recently celebrated Independence Day and ethnic day at our college I thought it would be the right time to post about this.
As you might have already guessed, I am going to talk about our country and what makes me proud being an Indian.
Ok. So when I was in Germany, I was often asked questions about India and Indian culture. I many times used to be speechless, because there is nothing which can truly be called a uniform Indian culture. The country is so diverse that making a general statement would not be fair. And neither the speaker nor the audience would have the patience to talk about or listen to, the difference in different parts of the country. Even simple questions like Indian food, Indian language, Indian wedding or Indian attire were too difficult to be answered.
And then one day, a girl questioned our unity too, commenting that how can we call ourselves a secular nation when there are communal riots every other day. Hmm… good point, made me seriously wonder. As far as Germany is concerned, people I met were hardly religious, so others religion hardly made any difference.
Anyways, I realized the most important aspect of Indian culture. According to me it is neither unity nor diversity. Yes, it is indeed amazing how beautifully we all live together despite the difference. But more importantly, I find it incredible how we relate to everybody as our family. Even an autowala or a shop-owner would be called “bhaiya” by everyone. It bonds people in an altogether different level. Yes, other people might argue that the respect level is still the same, it is just that we don’t refer to them as our family members. But according to me it does make a difference by calling somone as our own. I find it wonderful how parents scold their children if they call elder by their names and ask them to add a family-relation-suffix according to their age difference. Bhaiya, didi, uncle, aunty!!! I still have the same habit of using these words even while talking to my immediate seniors in college. And that is why I hate manipal’s trend of using the word “boss” to talk to people unknown. I feel it makes others more distant to us by using “boss” rather than calling them “uncle”. “Uncle or Bhaiya apna apna sa lagta hai!” (the words uncle or Bhaiya sound more familiar, intimate and personal.)

Tip-tip barsa pani...!!!

Well today in between a serious discussion our teacher suddenly looked out and asked, "who all want to get drenched in the rain?!?!" and I was completely taken aback by the question as it was totally unexpected from the strict teacher that she is.
Hmm... I think rain melts away everybody's heart. (Especially of film-makers who by default put atleast one rain-scene in their films. Indian cinema is incomplete without rains.) ahh.. Everybody’s but mine. Though I seriously wanted to get out and drench myself (which I did later), still I personally have never liked rain. it makes life so inconvenient and makes such a mess. First of all, you can hardly get out of your house because of it and need to be under shelter all the time or otherwise always carry an extra bag for keeping your umbrella or raincoat. So many plans get cancelled because of it. Then comes the puddles which make our already dirty roads dirtier and bumpier. To add to all of it, there are so many vicious insects and mosquitoes making life more miserable. Plus, if at all you get out without an umbrella, be ready to be wet for the next three hours. Clothes take a lot more time to dry than usual. Everything is such a mess. ahh.... And somehow it is nowhere close to being romantic. Getting wet, having sticky hair doesn’t help at all in making you look good. And whatever you will be wearing will get dirty anyhow, no matter how much you try staying away from the puddles. So dirty dress, sticky hair and being wet doesn’t turn me on at least.
Well, it is not as bad as I have framed it. Hmmm...sitting in the class, I lost touch of the discussion when she made reference to the rain. I was clouded with memories of my childhood when we used to get completely wet in the rains and play, dance and do silly stuff. I remember how we used to make manisha didi play loud music in her room and get wet in her garden. Then how yashi rajat and I used to have competitions for jumping into dirty puddles and how we used to ride our cycles right through the puddles and enjoy seeing the water getting split and making wonderful parabolas each side by our cycles. Even in the bus I loved measuring the depth of water clogged in puddles when our bus went through it, drenching poor passersby. I remember during one of the rains, vidikka and I had danced like crazy and had eaten hot pakoras (though I have no craze of eating pakoras during rains as everybody else). I used to love it when our schools used to get cancelled because of heavy rains (and as I had mentioned earlier I had made my first poem on one such day- ha! the park poem!)

THEORY OF KIDS!

Well… I love blogging. Thank god that I don’t have regular access to the internet or else I would have been glued to my blog. All the time, as soon as any idea comes in my mind I consider blogging about it. And when too many thoughts get clogged in my mind, I come to the lab and type them down. So here I am again, posting not just one but many posts in a single day.
Well, NEWS-time. I have made another new interesting decision for my future!
Here it is: hmm... I have decided that till my children turn 12 or something, I will not teach them anything about my religion or even of others. I will let them know nothing, no stories of our Gods and their miraculous feats or even the shlokas or bhajans.
And then when they turn mature, I will teach them of all religions (not just mine or my husband’s), the ideals of each religion and then let them decide for themselves the religion they desire to follow (only if they want to follow one!)
As far as I am concerned, I am not much of a god-believer so it hardly matters for me that they believe in the religion of my forefathers. But still I strongly feel that one’s religion determines one’s identity to a large extent, so it is for every individual to decide on his own, the ideals he wants to follow and hence can not to be imposed. And a religion just being the religion of one’s ancestors is no reason for it to be followed. You should deeply feel those ideals to be ultimate and suitable for following it.
And any questions about my husband’s opinion in this decision?? Well, for now I don’t even have a clue about who he is going to be, so how can I consider his opinions? And anyways, I would want to marry a highly mature person who if is mature should not have any problems with my decision. Why should he? It is not as if I am planning to spoil the future of my kids. It is a wise decision so a wise man should not have any problem with it, right? And anyways, who cares what he thinks!!!! The decision has already been made by the “HEAD” and he has no other option but to concur to it.
Well, that reminds me of the book I was reading before I came to Bangalore, called Ice-candy man by Bapsi Sidhwa. I found it an amazing book which is extremely well-written with witty humour. It deals with the riots in Lahore prior to the 1947 split. I was totally glum while reading the way Sidhwa has pictured the whole story from the eyes of a little girl, Lenny. (by the way she was a handicap).
These fights over religion are so depressing and melancholic. As I have said in one of my earliest posts, the meaning of faith and God gets lost in such petty issues. Nowadays, people follow God, not out of one’s faith but driven by society (line attributed to Vaibhav).
Nothing else worth saying. Let me know what you think of my idea or is it foolish to think like that?